Wednesday, August 27, 2014

"In 1978, Star Wars won seven Academy Awards. But if you want to watch that original version, the first of George Lucas’s soon to be seven-part saga, you’ll find it difficult. In fact, it’s actually impossible to buy an official copy of Star Wars as it was first released. Lucas doesn’t want you to see that version. Instead, he wants you to watch the continuously updated special editions—movies with added CGI, changed sound effects, and whole new scenes.

But fans aren’t the only ones who want Lucas to release the original. Curators at the National Film Registry picked the 1977 version of Star Wars to preserve for history’s sake, but they still don’t have a copy in the registry. When they asked for a copy, Lucas refused, saying that he would no longer authorize the release of the original version. The Library of Congress does have a 35mm print of Star Wars, one that was filed in 1978 as part of the movie’s copyright deposit, but the registry, where films are meant to be preserved for history, is still without one."

I was there when it hit theaters the first time. I was there hundreds of times. .It was, indeed, glorious. That moment, that experience has vanished now, despite, as mentioned in the link above, the fierce efforts of fans to return to that original. Perhaps this can be a learning moment for you. Treasure your experiences. They seldom remain something you can own.However, the world today does have the world that the movie helped create - the history, the intense fandom, the continuing saga - and for that we can be thankful.